Cambridge Irish Famine Memorial Unveiled By Ireland’s President on July 23, 1997

On Wednesday, July 23, 1997, Ireland’s President Mary Robinson officially helped dedicate the Cambridge Irish Famine Memorial in Cambridge Common, a tribute to the 150th anniversary of Ireland’s Great Hunger, known as An Gorta Mor. Nearly 4,000+ people attended the ceremony in the iconic Cambridge Common near Harvard Square, which also includes the Cambridge Civil War Monument…

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The New England Irish Connections to Bunker Hill

Photo by Peter H. Dreyer, Boston City Archives Bunker Hill Day is celebrated in Boston each June 17 to mark the famous Battle of Bunker Hill, which took place on June 17, 1775 between American colonists and British troops.  The Bunker Hill Monument was built to recognize the sacrifice of the colonists fighting against British rule. The British…

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The Irish Role in the Boston Massacre

March 5, 2020 Ceremony at the Boston Massacre Grave Site March 5, 2020, Boston marks the 250th anniversary of the Boston Massacre, a transformative event in history that launched the road to revolution in the American colonies. The Massacre took place on a wintry Monday night on March 5, 1770, when British troops fired into a…

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Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy’s Garden and Greenway along Boston Irish Heritage Trail

Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy (1890-1995), who held the Kennedy family together through tragedy and triumph for much of the 20th century, is permanently enshrined along Boston’s waterfront, with the Rose Kennedy Garden and the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway. The Rose Kennedy Garden  is the first stop on Boston’s Irish Heritage Trail, a walking tour of twenty landmarks that tell three centuries of Boston Irish…

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Frederick MacMonnies’ Once-Controversial Sculpture at the Boston Public Library

Boston Public Library Courtyard

One of Boston’s most interesting sculptures, Bacchante and Infant Faun, is displayed in the courtyard of the Boston Public Library in Copley Square, Back Bay.  The masterpiece was created in 1893 by American-born sculptor Frederick MacMonnies, a disciple of Augustus Saint-Gaudens. MacMonnies gave the original casting to his friend, architect Charles Follen McKim, whose own masterpiece, the Boston Public Library, was being…

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The Colonial and Revolutionary Flags

Grand Union Flag used by George Washington at his Cambridge Headquarters in 1776 Here is an interesting summary of the variety of flags in the colonies at the start of the American Revolution, as reprinted in Irish American Almanac in 1876.  The original source, according to the Almanac, was Appleton’s American Cyclopaedia.  “In the beginning…

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Boston Massacre Memorial was unveiled on Boston Common on November 14, 1888

One hundred and thirty years ago, on November 14, 1888, state and city officials unveiled the Boston Massacre Memorial on Tremont Street on Boston Common.  Among the guest speakers were Governor Oliver Ames, Mayor Hugh O’Brien and State Representative Julius Caesar Chappelle, an African-American leader who advocated for civil rights, voter registration and political participation.The sculptor was Robert Kraus, a German…

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Boston’s Maurice Tobin, U.S. Secretary of Labor under Harry S. Truman

Maurice Tobin and his wife Helen Photo Courtesy of Harry S. Truman Presidential Library This Labor Day, the Boston Irish Tourism Association pays tribute to Boston native Maurice Tobin (1901-53), who served as mayor of Boston and governor of Massachusetts before being named US Secretary of Labor by President Harry S. Truman. Born in Roxbury’s…

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A Poetic Choice in Lawrence: Heaney & Frost

This essay appeared in The Boston Globe, October 25, 2002By Michael Quinlin Robert Frost would appreciate knowing that the road less traveled leads to Lawrence, which is where Ireland’s esteemed poet Seamus Heaney plans to read tomorrow evening. Frost, New England’s favorite poet, spent his formative years in this industrial city, where he got his education, worked in a…

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May 19, 1832: Request to Bury Irish Children in Charlestown, Massachusetts Refused by Town Selectman

 Photo courtesy of Stephen O’Neill “On May 19, 1832, Boston’s Catholic Bishop, Benedict Fenwick attempted to bury two Boston children, three-year-old Florence Driscoll, who died from teething, and three-month-old James Kinsley, who died from infantile disease, at the recently opened Bunker Hill Catholic Cemetery in the town of Charlestown, Massachusetts, right across the bridge from Boston. “The obligation to…

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Robert Burns Statue in Boston’s Winthrop Square Honors Famed Scottish Poet

Scotland’s poet and bard Robert Burns (January 25, 1759 – July 21,1796) is honored in Boston with a statue at Winthrop Square in Boston’s Financial District. Best known for composing  the unofficial anthem to New Year’s Eve, Auld Lang Syne, Burns was a prolific poet who wrote over 300 poems, as well as various epistles and ballads. He was prolific in…

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